Defense Aerospace

Background

The hundreds of billions of dollars the federal government spends each year on defense are part of the reason defense aerospace firms make millions of dollars in campaign contributions, a majority of which has gone to Republicans since 1989.

Defense aerospace contractors concentrate their political donations on members of the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees that allocate federal defense money. Prime targets of defense aerospace money also include members of the Armed Services committees, who influence military policy and have the power to create demand for this industry's commodities.

The companies that win the most valuable military contracts to make fighter jets, GPS navigation systems and other defense tools also happen to be the most active lobbyists and most generous campaign contributions.

Lockheed Martin was the most generous donor among defense aerospace manufacturers in the 2012 election cycle, giving nearly $3 million to candidates, parties and outside groups.

Donors in defense aerospace long favored Republicans, sometimes by as much as a two-to-one margin. That trend flipped in 2008 and 2010. In 2010, the industry spent about $1 million more on Democrats, perhaps because the emergence of the tea party challenged the conservative consensus on the importance of defense spending. In 2012 the trend reverted back, and defense aerospace gave more to Republicans than ever before. In that election cycle, the industry donated more than $11 million to federal candidates, with 60 percent going to the GOP.

In 2013, the industry spent more than $57.8 million on lobbying, a slight decline from its most notable output ever in 2010. Boeing alone spent $15 million on lobbying that year, down from $17.9 million three years later.

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